Journal profile · HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES
Health Research Policy and Systems
ISSN 1478-4505 · BMC · United Kingdom
Health Research Policy and Systems: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.8; fully open access; APC about USD 3,590; median 175 days to acceptance (101 articles, last 24 months); 170 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Health Research Policy and Systems is published by BMC and is in Zone 2 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Health Policy Implementation Science, Global Maternal and Child Health and Global Health and Surgery, together about 41.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are General Health Professions. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Health Research Policy and Systems covers all aspects of the organisation and use of health research – including agenda setting, building health research capacity, and how research as a whole benefits decision makers, practitioners in health and related fields, and society at large. Health Research Policy and Systems considers manuscripts that investigate the role of evidence-based health policy and health research systems in ensuring knowledge from research is effectively used to improve health and health equity, especially in low- and middle-income countries. We are interested in both how health research can shape health policy and systems, and how health systems and policy can shape health research. Our scope includes work on health research agenda-setting, research capacity-building, collaborative research production, research impact assessment and how research can best help health decision-makers, including health policy-makers, practitioners, consumers and society at large. In considering manuscripts, we particularly look for articles that report the results of research on the prioritisation, conduct or use of research (‘research-on-research’) and/or that explicitly investigating the interaction between research and health policy or health systems. We are keen to consider manuscripts that: Provide insights on how the many, varying people involved in health (clinicians, consumers, managers, policy-makers, administrators, media, funders, researchers) can work more effectively together to improve health. Explore what we can learn from other areas of research and policy to improve the use of health research in health policy, and how we can support collaborative and interdisciplinary research for health. Describe and test approaches, frameworks and measures to strengthen health systems research and promote evidence-informed health policies, as well as innovative demonstrations of health systems impact. We do not usually publish articles that solely address translation of research into practice in one clinical area or health service context. Our mission is to support and further the discussion, debate and development of effective health research, policy and systems. We aim to bring diverse groups of people together with research evidence to overcome important health problems.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES
Editor-in-chief Kathryn OliverPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 1%); most named United Kingdom 21, United States 7, Australia 4, Switzerland 4, Brazil 4 (71 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Health Policy Implementation ScienceHealth Professions23.2%
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine11.3%
- Global Health and SurgeryMedicine7.1%
- Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of LifeEconomics, Econometrics and Finance6.5%
- Mental Health and Patient InvolvementHealth Professions5.3%
- Global Public Health Policies and EpidemiologyBusiness, Management and Accounting5.1%
- Health Sciences Research and EducationHealth Professions4.8%
- Healthcare Systems and ReformsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance4.4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Health Policy & Services | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Health Policy & Services | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Health Policy & Services | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
SCIEMEDLINEEmbaseCASCAB AbstractsPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS, Semantic Scholar
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 3.8LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.8Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 5.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 6.1LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.32LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.73LetPub ·
- h-index
- 110OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,206OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.64OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 5.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 159LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 2,400,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,921 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 101 | 101 | 34 |
| 2025 | 170 | 170 | 539 |
| 2024 | 179 | 179 | 1,516 |
| 2023 | 138 | 138 | 1,957 |
| 2022 | 143 | 143 | 3,327 |
| 2021 | 155 | 155 | 5,190 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
175 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 130 days – 253 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 28 days (101 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 210 days
- Sample
- 101 articles with submission and acceptance dates (320 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 27 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 21 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 27 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Open peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | EUR 2,890 / USD 3,590 / GBP 2,490 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,590 / EUR 2,890 / GBP 2,490 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,390 / USD 3,390 / EUR 2,790 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,490 / USD 3,590 / EUR 2,890 | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Reference style
- Numbered, in order of citation
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted7
- commentResearch Commentary Opinion Review Study protocol Comment (previously Commentary) Perspective (previously Opinion)Length not stated
- commentaryResearch Commentary Opinion Review Study protocol Comment (previously Commentary) Perspective (previously Opinion)Length not stated
- opinionResearch Commentary Opinion Review Study protocol Comment (previously Commentary) Perspective (previously Opinion)Length not stated
- perspectiveResearch Commentary Opinion Review Study protocol Comment (previously Commentary) Perspective (previously Opinion)Length not stated
- researchResearch Commentary Opinion Review Study protocol Comment (previously Commentary) Perspective (previously Opinion)Length not stated
- reviewResearch Commentary Opinion Review Study protocol Comment (previously Commentary) Perspective (previously Opinion)Length not stated
- study protocolResearch Commentary Opinion Review Study protocol Comment (previously Commentary) Perspective (previously Opinion)Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteData availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Data availability Formatting the 'Availability of data and materials' section of your manuscript
Data sharing strongly encouraged or required; deposit in public repositories where appropriate; data availability statement required. Model summary
The following format for the 'Availability of data and materials section of your manuscript should be used:
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Licensing and copyright
Creative Commons licences Open access articles in Springer Nature journals are published under Creative Commons licences. These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of open access material. Under Creative Commons licences, authors retain copyright of their articles. Health Research Policy and Systems articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Benefits of open access
Publishing open access (OA) offers a number of benefits, including greater reach and readership for your work: Cited more 1.6x more citations of OA articles than non-OA articles across all subjects Downloaded more 4x more downloads of OA articles than non-OA articles Greater impact 2.5x more Altmetric attention. OA articles attracted 1.9x more news mentions and 1.2x more policy mentions Open acces…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Authors may suggest peer reviewers in cover letter; institutional email addresses preferred. Model summary
Peer review is the process used to evaluate the quality of a manuscript before publication. Independent researchers in the relevant field assess submitted manuscripts to check their validity and robustness. Their feedback guides editors in making publication decisions. Typically, two or more experts evaluate each manuscript based on three main criteria: scientific robustness: is the research metho…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- BMC
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1478-4505
- Society / sponsor
- World Health Organization
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Health Research Policy and Systems
What CAS zone is Health Research Policy and Systems in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Health Research Policy and Systems is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Health Policy & Services. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Health Research Policy and Systems?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.8; CiteScore 6.1, h-index 110.
How long does peer review take at Health Research Policy and Systems?
Based on the dates recorded on 101 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 175 days (interquartile range 130–253 days); authors report an average review time of about 27 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Health Research Policy and Systems?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: Numbered, in order of citation; Suggested reviewers: Optional. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Health Research Policy and Systems based?
Of the 71 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 1%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (21), United States (7) and Australia (4). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Health Research Policy and Systems?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Health Research Policy and Systems is indexed in SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists SCIE, MEDLINE, Embase, CAS and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Health Research Policy and Systems open access, and what is the APC?
Health Research Policy and Systems is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,590.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .